The World From Japan

Hello all!!! I made it to Japan safely and had a very long, but interesting flight. We took a route from New Jersey that took us over Northern Canada and Alaska then by Russia down to Japan. The flight was 14 hours long and we kept up with the sun the entire time so it was very weird when I got there because it felt like the same day even though it was the next. I think I lost the day somewhere off the coast of Russia so if you find it I would like it back. I wasn't aware until I got there that Tokyo was not the city I was going to. The airport was in Narita which is about 45 minutes outside of Tokyo. Trust me, you still get a feel of the country there. When I got off the plane all I could do was smile. I knew I was in a completely different place and was loving it. The vegetation is totally different and there are Japanese characters everywhere. It had never really sunk in the trip I am taking until I got off of the plane. It definitely hit hard and fast. I had quite some trouble finding a hostel to stay the night and of course locating it. I had this really rough map that showed where it was. I had to get help from this guy who did not speak any english but he knew what was up. He finally got me in the right diretion and after some time and some amazement I found it. I bet I looked like some cracked out American walking the streets with my jaw dropped and a pivoting head. I immediately fell in love with the culture there. Beyond Kill Bill I had never really had any experience with this culture. I was fascinated and it showed. When I got to the hostel my first two steps were met by an abrupt grunt. I realized I had my shoes on and was about to cross the shoe threshold of the hostel. Once I figured it out and apologized to the guy at the desk I got my room and threw my stuff down. I talked to this Brit who was teaching english there and got some recommendations for places to go and places to eat. I took his advice and went around the town by foot looking at the sights (being anything because it was all exotic). I stopped at this grocery store and saw some stuff that I had never seen before. Weird fruits and vegetables were everywhere, the fish section looked like a bait shop; it was exhilirating. I left there and went to find the sushi place he recommended to me. After searching for forever I could not find it and had to settle for somewhere else. As jet lag was rearing its ugly head I went to the first promising place and just my luck, it was a Hawaiian style restaurant, oh well, I was tired of looking. I ordered the closest thing to sushi, the California roll. I was a bit perturbed that I flew to the other side of the world and had a roll named after my home country but it was awesome, had raw fish too. I went to bed early that night to be able to get the most out of the next day not to mention I was tired as hell. The next morning I woke up early to go to the Shinsho temple before my flight. The temple was so amazing. It was totally "zened" out and had beautiful trees, gorgeous shrines, and lakes that actually had those orange and white fish that I always thought were some Japanese folklore that some American started to make $1000 dollars on a fish. There were these magestic statues and shrines of buddha and gods (and probably some other stuff that I couldn't read). The shrine was built in 940 A.D. I spent most of the day there and got to see some monks walking across the courtyard with wooden sandles. The people around seemed so excited to see them and bowed to them as they walked by. I, not wanting to be disrespectful, did the same. I explored everywhere around the temple and unfortunately, it was my time to leave. I went around the city a little bit before getting on the train to the airport. I felt like I got a good amount of Japanese experience but I can assure you this, I will be back.